Each year, some two million Muslims from around the world make a pilgrimage to the holy site of Mecca. For some in the West, nothing could be scarier than two million Muslims, all dressed in white, touching their heads to the ground and shouting "Allahu Akbar." Reading the usual pundits, you get the idea that Mecca is a breeding ground of Islamic radicalism.
To figure out if this is true, a group of American researchers surveyed more than 1500 Pakistanis who went on the pilgrimage to Mecca in 2006. They discovered that these men had overcome great obstacles to make the trip. It costs arond $2500 to go to Mecca, and that's three times the annual salary of a typical Pakistani. Still, nearly 140,000 Pakistanis applied to go in 2006. Only 80,000 visas were granted by the Saudi government.
Since the Saudis granted their visas based on lottery, the researchers had the clever idea of comparing the attitudes of those who returned from Mecca to those who didn't get to go. They wanted to see if the pilgrimage to Mecca strengthened or undermined Islamic radicalism. Incredibly, the researchers found that the Pakistanis who went to Mecca returned with attitudes more moderate and less sympathetic to Islamic fanaticism and terrorism.
But isn't Mecca dominated by radical clerics who, when they aren't eating or sleeping, lead chants of "Death to America"? This is the propaganda you hear from groups like memri.org that selectively publish material intended to give an exaggerated picture of the influence of the Muslim radicals. In reality, the overriding theme of the visit to Mecca is the traditional theme of universal Muslim brotherhood.
No surprise: pilgrims returning fro Mecca were 25 percent less likely to hold that different tribes or ethnicities could not live in harmony. Remarkably, pilgrims were also more likely to believe that all religions can co-exist. Moreover, the Pakistanis who went to Mecca were less approving of suicide bombings and other such tactics as the Pakistanis who stayed back.
Call this the Mecca effect. I predicted it in my book The Enemy at Home, in which I argued that America can find common ground with traditional believers and not just anti-Muslim activists like Hirsi Ali. The results of the Mecca effet, and the study cited here, are beautifully outlined in a recent article in the online magazine Slate written by Professor Ray Fisman of Columbia University. You can read the article here.
Yes, I know that the Islamophobes will come back with their regularly-recyled quotations from the Koran about "killing all the infidels" and so on. But equally alarming quotations can also be found in the Old Testament. The important thing is to see how those texts have been interpreted and how people have acted upon them. Muslims have had many empires through the centuries: the Ummayad, the Abassid, the Mughal, the Ottoman, and so on. Tens of millions of Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians have lived under Muslim rule. In any Muslim empire was it either policy or practice to systematically kill all the non-Muslims? No.
So we have to learn to think afresh and to take into account real evidence. Prejudice against practicing Muslims and against religious believers in general is rife in certain segments of Western society. But such prejudices should not be the basis of making public policy.
Reader Comments ( Page 18 of 19)
256. D.D. - YOU'RE TOO EASILY DUPED. ANYONE WHO REFUSES TO DENOUNCE A GROUP THAT CHOPS OFF PEOPLES HEADS IS GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION. THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A MODERATE "HEAD-CHOPPER-OFFER." OH, WHILE I'M HERE, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "HOLY" LAND EITHER. THE CONCEPT IS IN ERROR BECAUSE . . . THERE IS NO GOD!
Daniel Mullane at 5:48PM on Jun 1st 2008
257. D.D. - COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE AN ATHEIST DRAPED IN CHRISTIAN CLOTH?
YOUR ARTICLES DO SUPPORT YOUR UPSCALE LIFESTYLE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA . . . DO THEY NOT?
Daniel Mullane at 6:11PM on Jun 1st 2008
258. Actually Dinesh D'Souza is a nihilistic christian, as all christians are since they have a nihilistic utopia in their after life place known as heaven which is ruled by the totalitarian evil being known as god.
Peter at 7:23PM on Jun 1st 2008
259. JESUS
Thor?
THOR
Yes?
JESUS
Still got that thunderbolt?
Robert at 9:05PM on Jun 1st 2008
260. The previous was from "St. Pete's" (a work in progress) You'll have to go back several posts to understand... and no, I won't explain.
P.S. Waves were awesome today! Lot's of crowding in the ranks, but that's expected- Allah o akbar!
(I know, spelling, but what-f***ing ever!)
Robert at 9:14PM on Jun 1st 2008
261. "Since 1950 Billy Graham has ministered to eleven American Presidents, befriending and influencing several of them."
It's not been working as evidenced by the massive numbers of people those eleven American Presidents have killed. Oh wait, given the morals of the bible it is working.
Yikes. The evil that vile men such as Graham and US Presidents do.
Peter at 9:25PM on Jun 1st 2008
262. An Anti-World Worldview
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." - 1 John 2:15
I guess that all those religious people who are wealthy don't have their god in them. Ha ha.
Peter at 9:29PM on Jun 1st 2008
263. "Since our country, too, possesses weapons of mass destruction, I suppose another country is justified in attacking us!" - cynthia
Given the logic of the Bush Administration your logic is impeccable.
Given the fact of US attacks in the middle east since the early 1950's that is what seems to have happened.
Do unto others seems to be the way of the jungle and the way of the bible.
Not too healthy for many 100,000's of thousands in the Gulf War, Between Gulf Wars, and the Second Gulf War now under way. That's just one example.
Peter at 10:29PM on Jun 1st 2008
264. Dr. Emanuel Tanay is a well known and well respected psychiatrist.
A German's point of view on Islam.
A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War ll owned a
number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German
people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward
fanaticism.
"Very few people were true Nazis," he said, "but many enjoyed the return
of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those
who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just
sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us,
and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family
lost everything, I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies
destroyed my factories."
We are told again and again by "experts" and "talking heads" that Islam
is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want
to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, itis
entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel
better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging
across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics
rule Islam at this moment in history.
It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50
shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically
slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually
taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics
who bomb, behead, murder, or honor killing. It is the fanatics who take
over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the
stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard
quantifiable fact is that the "peaceful majority," the "silent
majority," is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in
peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of
about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists
managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
The average Japanese individual prior to World War ll was not a
warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across
South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic
murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel,
and bayonet.
And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not
be said that the majority of Rwandans were "peace loving"?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our
powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of
points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up,
because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find
that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs,
Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many
others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it
was too late.
As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only
group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is
serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is
contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand
So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope
that thousands, world wide, read this - think about it - and send it on.
Emanuel Tanay, M.D.
American Soldier at 10:40PM on Jun 1st 2008
265. While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas rancher, whose
hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a
conversation with the old man.
Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his bid to be our President.
The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Obama is a 'post turtle'.' Not being
familiar with the term, the doctor asked him, "What is a 'post turtle?"
The old rancher said, 'When you are driving down a country road and you
come across a fence post, with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'.'
The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to
explain. "You know, he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up
there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder
what kind of a dumb ass put him up there."
So now you know the definition of a Post Turtle...any more questions you
want me to answer?
American Soldier at 10:41PM on Jun 1st 2008
266. Peter you are an ignorant soul. I wonder why my fellow soldiers and I defend bums like you. Personally you are a disgrace to America. And those like you who do not have a clue. So set on your high horse you anti-american piss ant.
American Soldier at 10:46PM on Jun 1st 2008
267. Botts:
The problem I have with finding a good translation of a book is that I have to know the language well enough to make that determination -- and by that time I don't really need the translation anymore...
Tem at 11:59PM on Jun 1st 2008
268. American Soldier:
"Peter you are an ignorant soul. I wonder why my fellow soldiers and I defend bums like you."
I wouldn't presume to tell you why you or fellow soldiers would do anything, but my guess is that one reason you do it is because you're proud of the fact that you're defending the freedoms of the USA. Calling someone anti-American and a pissant because they don't hold the same viewpoint as you belies that. Why even have freedom if you're not going to (let someone) make use of it?
Tem at 12:06AM on Jun 2nd 2008
269.
True soldiers defend ALL Americans. We all take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and you don't get to choose which parts.
Any REAL one would tell you that. I didn't do it for the money....
ex-christian at 12:35AM on Jun 2nd 2008
270. "American Soldier: "Peter you are an ignorant soul."
First off I'm not a soul (as that is an imaginary concept and souls do not exist); and secondly I don't know what you think I'm ignorant of since you've not specified what that is.
American Soldier: "I wonder why my fellow soldiers and I defend bums like you."
I have no problem with person self defense. It's offense by a State for no reason that is the problem. It's an offensive State under the control of Bush, Cheney and company which are the problem. They are, along with the other Bush and Clinton, responsible for the deaths of many innocents. That is undeniable.
As such they are war criminals. If you assisted them in carrying out killings of innocents then you are a war criminal as well.
Americal Sldier: "Personally you are a disgrace to America."
What is a disgrace to America is the mass murders of innocents in the name of America.
Could it not be in part that the reason that America was attacked that dark day was the deaths of innocents by the USA over the decades prior? Yes it could be, and in fact it's been a stated reason by the Enemies of the USA.
Face it you are a cult member in the religion known as America.
American Soldier: "And those like you who do not have a clue."
Well then why don't you list your crimes and inform us so that we have a clue.
American Soldier: "So s[i]t on your high horse you anti-american piss ant."
I'm not anti-American as you claim. I'm simply anti killing of people. Any policy by any government (really a group of people pretending to be a government) that kills people for any reason other than person self defense is illegitimate.
The legitimacy of a group of people pretending to be the government is inversely proportional to the harm that they cause with their policies. Killing is harmful. The Bush-Cheney record is abysmal with anywhere from 100,000 to 1,000,000 dead (if you include Clinton).
Legitimacy = 1 / harm.
It's irrelevant which country does the harm.
Just because it's my country doing a particular harm doesn't mean that I'd defend it.
Any harm by any group of people is intolerable, especially in an age when small groups of individuals have access to all kinds of tactics, and methods of destruction beyond their numbers.
I can't support State Based Terrorism by ANY country.
The actions of the USA has been considered State Based Terrorism by many.
If you really support the war on terrorism, then begin that support at home by impeaching Bush and Cheney and bring them and their cohorts up on War Crimes charges along with Clinton and Bush 41.
America is a cult just like any religion. Deprogram yourself from the State Propaganda. Become a free thinker before it's too late.
Stop thinking small and within your political unit, one country [an archaic and highly dangerous a concept as god is a myth; we have the whole world to think of is we want to solve global problems.
Peter at 4:54AM on Jun 2nd 2008